Lessons from the Cities, part eight: Urban Northwest: By The Numbers
Who are the nation’s city kids? They are the estimated 11 million students attending urban school districts, slightly more than a quarter of all public school students. More than a million are New Yorkers. About a third live in Florida, Texas, or California. And only a relative handful—about 275,000—live and learn in the largest cities of the Northwest region. In this corner of the country, only three districts—Anchorage, Portland, and Seattle—belong to the Council of the Great City Schools, which represents 58 of the nation’s largest urban school districts.
Even those familiar with the geography of the Northwest might be surprised by what else the numbers reveal about urban education, Northwest-style.
Seattle, for instance, is clearly the largest city in the region, with a population of 516,000 in a greater metropolitan region of 2.2 million, according to Census figures. Last year the Seattle district enrolled an estimated 47,457 students, the highest number in 18 years but still fewer than Portland’s 55,831 students or Anchorage’s 48,309. In Portland (pop. 437,319) and Anchorage (pop. 226,338), urban students are more likely to attend public schools than their Seattle peers.
After these three largest districts, how do other Northwest urban areas compare in size? Here's the breakdown, based on 1998-99 enrollment estimates: Salem-Keizer, Oregon, 33,086; Spokane, Washington, 32,553; Tacoma, Washington, 31,939; Boise, Idaho, 26,913.
Although Northwest cities tend to be relatively smaller in scale than urban centers elsewhere in the country, they have been fast growing during recent years. From 1990 to 1995, the Northwest region grew by 11.4 percent, twice the national rate. Most of this growth has been concentrated in the cities. Boise, for instance, can’t compare in size to the Los Angeles District, serving more than 680,000 students. But Idaho’s largest city reported 26 percent growth from 1990 to 1996, according to Census figures. During the same period, the Portland area grew by 16 percent; Salem, 15 percent; Spokane, 12 percent; Tacoma, 12 percent; Anchorage, 11 percent; Seattle, 10 percent.
Nationally, urban students are more likely to be minorities than students in suburbs and rural areas. The nation’s 100 largest districts, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), have a 66 percent minority enrollment, compared with 38 percent nationwide. Minority and racial composition, however, varies from city to city. Enrollment in Los Angeles is 89 percent non-White, with Hispanic students accounting for 68.5 percent of the total; Black, 13.8 percent; Asian/Pacific Islander, 6.5 percent; American Indian/Alaska Native, 0.3 percent. New York’s city schools are 84 percent non-White, with the largest minority populations being Hispanic, at 37.5 percent, and Black, 35.8 percent.
Urban districts in the Northwest, by comparison, tend to have a smaller percentage of minority students. Seattle is the most diverse of the large districts in this region, with 40.6 percent of students being non-White (24.7 percent Asian/Pacific Islander, 22.8 percent Black/ non-Hispanic, 8.9 percent Hispanic). In both Anchorage and Portland, about two-thirds of students are White. In Anchorage, the largest minority group is American Indian/Alaska Native (11.5 percent), followed by Black (8.7 percent), Asian/Pacific Islander (7.8 percent), and Hispanic (4.9 percent). In Portland, the largest minority group is Black (16 percent), followed by Asian/Pacific Islander (8.6 percent), Hispanic (6.4 percent), and American Indian/Alaska Native (2.3 percent).
Poverty, a factor in most of the large urban districts, appears to be less prevalent in the Northwest. In the 100 largest districts, 49 percent of students were eligible for free lunch in 1995-96, compared with 35 percent of students nationwide. In Portland, 32 percent of students were eligible for free lunch; in Anchorage, 17 percent qualified. NCES did not have a comparable figure available for Seattle. During the 1998-99 school year, however, Seattle reported 41 percent of its students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, a percentage that’s been declining since 1996.
Urban schools in the Northwest also invest more per pupil than other large districts. The average per pupil spending in the nation’s 100 largest school districts in 1996 was $5,513, compared with $6,343 in Anchorage; $6,622 in Portland; and $6,723 in Seattle.
Sources: Characteristics of the 100 Largest Public Elementary and Secondary School Districts in the United States: 1997-98 (National Center for Education Statistics, July 1999); Estimates of the Population of Metropolitan Areas (U.S. Bureau of the Census, July, 1996).
